Privacy Statement

British Columbia Lottery Corporation ("BCLC") is committed to responsible information management practices. Any personal information provided to us is collected, used, disclosed and stored in accordance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act ("FIPPA"), British Columbia and other relevant legislation. 

So that you can make informed choices, this Privacy Statement describes how BCLC collects and uses your personal information through BCLC websites (“Sites”), devices, products, services, and applications that reference this Privacy Statement ("BCLC Services”). The terms described in the Terms of Use also apply to this Privacy Statement. By using BCLC Services you are consenting to the practices described in this Privacy Statement.

BCLC does not collect information through the Sites that personally identifies individuals except when individuals provide this information voluntarily by e-mail, live chat, participating in a survey or contest or by requesting a particular product or service from BCLC.

Information sharing with Third Parties

We will share your personal information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this Privacy Statement.

Aggregate information (non-personal)

We may share aggregated demographic information, such as age group and postal code, about our user base with third-party companies that provide marketing services to BCLC. This information does not identify individual users and is only used for the purpose of selecting target audiences for marketing campaigns.

We do not link aggregate user data with personal information.

Personal information

We may provide your personal information to companies that provide services to help us with our business activities, such as conducting a survey or contest or to send emails to you. 

For all third parties, we will only share the information necessary for these third parties to provide a product or service on our behalf. These companies are authorized to collect and use your personal information only as necessary.

Further, we may also disclose your personal information:

• as required by law, including by our regulators;

• when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a government request, or;

• to any other third party with your prior consent to do so.

Marketing choices

If you no longer wish to receive our promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by:

• following the unsubscribe link included in each communication;
• calling Customer Support at 1-866-815-0222; or
• contacting us.

By unsubscribing you will no longer receive promotional emails from PlayNow, Encore Rewards or BCLC lotto!

Surveys or contests

From time to time, we may provide you the opportunity to participate in contests or surveys on our Sites. Participation is completely voluntary and you therefore have a choice whether or not to disclose any of your personal information. The requested information typically includes contact information (such as name, email address, phone number), your personal opinion, and demographic information (such as postal code and age group).

We use survey information to improve our products and services and track and target the interests of our users so that we can enhance the user experience. 

In the case of contests, information is collected and used in order to administer the contest, improve products and services, contact the winners to award their prize and publish winners’ name, photograph, location and prize. Each contest will have its own Contest Conditions, which includes a privacy notice specific to that contest. 

Log files

As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data.

We use this information, which does not identify individual users, to analyze trends, to administer the Sites, to track users' movements around the Sites, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole.

In the case of PlayNow.com, we tie an IP address to every transaction to monitor system activity and to comply with applicable laws. An IP address is also used to make certain that players are logging in to their account from within British Columbia, which is due to our legal obligations.

We use a third-party tracking service that uses tracking technologies (cookies and web beacons) to track non-personal information about visitors to our Sites in the aggregate, and to track usage and volume statistics to improve our services and our Sites.

Cookies and other Technologies

A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user's computer for record-keeping purposes. We do not link the information we store in cookies to any personal information you submit while on our Sites.

We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. A session ID cookie expires when you close your browser whereas a persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time.

We utilize cookies to help manage player logins, to protect against security issues, and to remember player preferences. We do not set a persistent cookie to store your passwords, as we do not want anyone to be able to access your account other than you. Cookies are intended to enhance your experience on the Sites and the administration of the Sites.  

We use Google Optimize (GO) to perform variation testing. GO cookies are placed within our Sites’ pages to determine page effectiveness in conversion. The results from this testing are used to create an improved product experience for our players.

GO does not collect personal information, only information related to the session. In the event that personal information is collected, Google requests your consent before sharing it. Further details can be found in the  Google Privacy Policy.

We use Mouseflow web analytics service to help us research issues on the Sites and improve our visitors’ experiences. When enabled, Mouseflow records mouse clicks, mouse movements, scrolling activity and may record text you type, excluding text input in password fields. For more information, see Mouseflow’s Privacy Policy. You can also choose to disable the Mouseflow service.

Behavioural targeting

We partner with third-party marketing and advertising organizations, including Facebook, to either display advertising on our Sites or to manage our advertising on other websites. Our third-party partners may use technologies, such as cookies and eTags, to gather information about your activities on the Sites and other websites in order to provide you with advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. If you do not wish to have this information used for the purpose of serving you interest-based advertising, you may opt-out here. Please note that you will continue to see advertisements, but they will no longer be tailored to your interests.

Web beacons

Web beacons, are tiny graphics with a unique identifier that are embedded invisibly on pages on the Sites. We use this tool to help us understand site usage, e.g. which pages are being accessed more frequently. This helps us to better manage content on the Sites. We do not identify individuals when using web beacons on pages on the Sites. 

We also use web beacons in our HTML-based emails and newsletters to let us know which emails have been opened by recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns and make improvements where necessary. If you would like to opt-out of these emails, please see "Marketing choices."

Links to other sites

Our Sites may contain links to other sites that are not owned or controlled by BCLC. Please be aware that BCLC is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites.

We encourage you to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personal information.

Social media features

Our Sites may include social media features, such as the Facebook Like button and Twitter Tweet button. These features may collect your IP address and which page you are visiting, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features are hosted by a third party, such as Twitter and Facebook. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.

Winner stories

We post winner stories that may contain personal information, such as name and city of residence. Player consent is governed by the Rules and Regulations Respecting Lotteries and Gaming and the PlayNow.com Player Agreement that is acknowledged upon registration for an account, and in some cases, additional consent mechanisms.

Security

We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. However, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

When you enter sensitive information, such as a credit card number, we encrypt the transmission of that information using Transport Layer Security (TLS).

Contacting us

If you would like more information about our privacy practices, please contact BCLC Customer Support.

From time to time, we may update this Privacy Statement to reflect changes to our information practices.

Last updated: August 08, 2021